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Cant (language)
Cant is an example of an argot or cryptolect, a characteristic or secret language used only by members of a group, often used to conceal the meaning from those outside the group. An example of a cant language which has been introduced widely into the mainstream is the Polari language which was used extensively in British gay and theatrical circles in the first half of the 20th century. Origin The origin of the word cant itself has not been agreed upon. The word may be derived from the Irish word caint ("speech, talk"), or it may be from the English word "chant" or Latin cantare. The original meaning of "cant" was a secret language supposedly used by rogues and vagabonds in Elizabethan England. This Thieves' Cant was a feature of popular pamphlets and plays particularly between 1590 and 1615, but continued to feature in literature through the 18th century. There are questions about how genuinely the literature reflected vernacular use in the criminal underworld. A thief in 1839 claimed that the cant he had seen in print was nothing like the cant then used by gypsies, thieves and beggars. He also said that each of these used distinct vocabularies, which overlapped; the gypsies having a cant word for everything, and the beggars using a lower style than the thievesRibton-Turner, C. J. 1887 Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging, London, 1887, p.245, quoting an examination taken at Salford Gaol. In modern times "Cant" is used sometimes to refer to Shelta (alternatively known as Sheldru, Gammon, or The Cant), the cryptolectic language of Irish Travellers based on Irish and English. In Scotland, it refers to the mix of Romani, Scottish Gaelic and Scots used by Scottish Gypsies and Travellers. Scottish Highland Travellers also used a form of Gaelic backslang known as Beurla-reagaird. In June 2009 it was reported that inmates in one English prison were using "Elizabethan Cant" as a means of communication that guards would not understand, although the words used are not part of the canon of recognised cant. Examples of cants * Banjački - secret language of bricklayers from Podrinje region in Serbia. * Barallete * Bargoens * Bron * Carny - The secret language of carnival workers * fala dos arxinas * Fenya - spoken by Russian traveling traders, later by criminal community * Gacería * Grypsera, a sociolect of Polish criminals * Klezmer-loshn * Javanais - a French argot that forms words through infixation * Louchébem - a French argot à clef in which words are constructed through regular transformations, as in English Pig Latin * Meshterski - a Bulgarian secret sociolect of builders and masons * Polari (or Palare) - spoken by British Fairground travellers since the 17th centuryPartridge, Eric (1937) Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English and members of the British gay community in the 20th century, made well-known by Julian and Sandy in the radio show Round the Horne. * Rotwelsch - spoken by German criminals * Shelta language/Gammon/Travellers' cant - spoken by some Irish Travellers * Thieves' cant - language used mostly in former times by thieves, beggars and hustlers. * Tsotsitaal * Verlan - a complex French slang involving the inversion of syllables in many words In popular culture The computer game Planescape: Torment makes extensive use of words from old English thieves' cant, which it refers to explicitly as "the cant". Players must pick up the meanings of obscure words from context. The vast majority of the game is in ordinary English, however. Use of "the cant" originated in the Dungeons and Dragons setting on which the game is based. Another example of cant is used in the play Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker. The convicts speak in Cant. Nadsat in the book and movie A Clockwork Orange is, for all intents and purposes, a cant; in the book, Alex DeLarge also mentions that one of his cellmates in "Staja (State Jail) 15" tells long stories in "old-time criminal" slang---a short sample is given, which is clearly in some form of cant. See also * Argot * Jargon * Lingo * Patois * Slang * Vernacular References Category:Language varieties and styles Category:Cant languages Category:Slang